firstcuts 34 - smart phone era productivity

8/9/2019 FirstCuts 34 - Smart Phone Era Productivity

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/firstcuts-34-smart-phone-era-productivity 1/10

Newsletter Header



Newsletter Header

2

FirstCutsFramework Consulting Inc. June 2010: Issue 34

Inside

Editorial 2

Article 3

Tips, Ads and Links 10

Editorial

FirstCuts - a source of

provocative ideas for

Caribbean business-

thinkers

Article

Time management andproductivity in the era

of smartphones.

Tips, Ads and Links

Editorial

It’s been some time since thelast issue, and I have lots of things to blame for that. There’s a recessionunderway, plus I also movedresidences, AND there’scurrently a state of emergency here in Jamaica,caused in part by a mannicknamed “Dudus.” In

addition, I launchedMyTimeDesign 2.0 back inDecember.

So, I’ve been quite busy—andwondering whether I should join the legions of professionals who useBlackberrys and othersmartphones. But I’m a bitconcerned … When I started

leading time managementprogrammes several years

ago, I never had a problemconvincing people to turn off their smartphones during thecourse. Recently, however,I’ve noticed a shift. In each of the five programmes I’ve ledover the past few months,there’s been an increase inthe number of those whocannot do so, either because

they’re scared or because of ingrained habits.

Is this the new definition of productivity? Am I doomed tofollow suit if I purchase asmartphone?-- Francis

P.S. Don’t forget the podcastpage:

www.fwconsulting.podomatic.com

3389 Sheridan Street #434

Hollywood FL 33021, USA

PO Box 3109

Kingston 8, Jamaica

phone: 954-323-2552

phone: 876-880-8653

fax: 509-272-7966

[email protected]

www.fwconsulting.com

The audio podcast ofthis ezine is about 30minutes long and can befound atfwconsulting.podomatic.com.

http://fwconsulting.podomatic.com/

http://fwconsulting.podomatic.com/

http://fwconsulting.com/



Issue 1

3

Smartphone Era Productivity

"How did we get here?"

This question was mutteredto me by an executive as hewas describing the timepressures being felt in hisCaribbean workplace. Hiscompany was one of the firstto encourage the widespreaduse of smartphones, givingalmost all employees a toolthat the CEO and otherexecutives had found to be

invaluable.

However, the result was far

from what he expected.

From what he could tell, 24/7

access to email, voice mail,

and instant messages were

proving to be a massive

distraction. He could hardly

conduct a meeting without

watching people’s heads dip

into their laps as they

diverted their attention to

some message on their

smartphones and away from

the meeting. Some even

used their devices during

one-on-one conversations,

pretending to listen while

they sent, or searched for,

something more important incyberspace. A few claimed

that they were “good at

multitasking” — but as far as

the executive was

concerned, that was a lot of

crap.

The poor etiquette was one

issue, but he was more

concerned about the obvious

drop in personal productivity.

Too many of his employees

were doing half-finished

work and missing importantdeadlines as they zigged and

zagged from one task to

another, never bringing

anything to completion.

They were busy, all right, but

they were wasting tons of

time.

The executive remembered,

from the TV show M*A*S*H,

that even battlefield

surgeons used triage to

separate one case from

another when there was a

flood of casualties. They

certainly didn’t jump from

patient to patient like scared

rabbits.

Yet, that was what his staff

was doing — going from one

unfinished task to the next,with their smartphones in

hand. How could he reverse

the seemingly inevitable

drop in productivity?

After speaking with a few

members of his staff, I had

nothing but bad news.

Based on my observations of

companies around the world

that had adopted

smartphones, I told him that

the problem was likely to get

worse if he didn’t intervene.

It was reasonable to assume

that every single employee

would, at some point, have

access to a smartphone. The

habits that he deplored now

were simply likely to

multiply.

Here’s what I explained —

and I urged him not to takemy word for it, but to read

the statistics I would later

share with him.

Today, we have a perfect

storm of conditions that

have turned email into a

burden: outdated habits, a

rapid increase in messages,

the spreading use of

smartphones, and an

ongoing recession.

These factors are

collectively producing the

productivity issues being

experienced. Altogether,

they’re exerting a powerful

force that’s responsible for

shaping corporate culture in

many companies — far morethan any value statements,

I told him thatthe problemwas likely toget worse...when everyemployee (got)access to asmartphone.The habits hedeplored were

likely tomultiply.



Newsletter Header

4

vision exercises, or training

programmes. They influence

behaviours in ways that are

unavoidable.

To get past the drop in

productivity, companies

need to put in place

innovative individual

training, buttressed by new

policies. But to understand

why these solutions work,

we must understand the four

conditions that are

producing the perfect storm.

OLD HABITS

The habits that we use to

manage our time — and, in

particular, electronic

messages — have grown

stale.

Here’s why.

When email was introduced

to the workplace in the

1990s, there were no classes

to learn best practices for

processing messages. At

best, we took courses that

taught us how to use

Microsoft Outlook or Lotus

Notes, but they didn’taddress the habits necessary

to be productive using this

new technology.

This wasn’t too much of a

problem at the time, as the

volume of email was

miniscule — and, as

employees, we simply

taught ourselves our own

way of processing messages.

Many of us independently

came up with something

close to the following

process:

1. Open email programme

first thing in the morning,

and keep it open throughout

the day.

2. Allow email to stream into

your inbox continuously.

3. Check email periodically,

depending on what you

expect to receive, perhaps

prompted by a flashing

graphic icon or audible“ding.”

4. Glance at each message

once — and if you can’t

delete it immediately due to

its irrelevance, leave it in the

inbox while making a mental

commitment to return to it

later.

Frequently, however, I meet

professionals who have

10,000–30,000 emails in

their inboxes. And it’s not

because they have a

character defect. They’re not

lazy, disorganised, or lacking

in commitment. They’re also

not afflicted with the wrong

ethnic background, age,

gender, or education.

Instead, they’re simply and

faithfully following themethod they’ve always used

to process email at a time

when that method has

stopped working. Little do

they know that the habits

they’ve always used are

actually creating their

current problems because

they haven’t been adapted

to the new circumstances

that exist today.

Back then, other forms of

messaging — like instant

messaging and Twitter —

were not even

contemplated, yet these

Frequently,however, Imeetprofessionalswith 10-30

thousandemails in theirInboxes.

http://caribhrforum.com/



Issue 1

5

now make up an important

part of many employees’

days.

AN INCREASE IN MESSAGE

VOLUME

An increase in the number of electronic messages is a fact

of life in the corporate world,

and it will remain that way

for the foreseeable future.

The question is this: How

much will messages

increase, and what impact

will that have on

productivity?

My casual observation is thatCaribbean professionals

average between 50 and

100 emails per day. The data

show that the average global

professional receives 147

emails per day in his/her

personal and business

accounts, which gives us an

idea of what’s likely to

happen locally.

Recent studies conducted by

the Radicati Group predict

that the number of wireless

email accounts will more

than triple by 2014. Also, the

volume of email sent in a

100-person company was

measured at 5.7 million

emails per year in 2006, and

it’s expected to increase to8.5 million in 2012. The

Caribbean has among the

world’s highest rates of

mobile penetration, so I

expect the number of

messages sent and received

to also rise as employees

convert to smartphones from

regular cell phones.

If you’ve ever sent people

email and never received a

reply, the chances are good

that those people are

overwhelmed. This wouldn’thappen if their current set of

habits could handle higher

volume. Unfortunately,

that’s often not the case —

those habits just don’t scale

well, and the four steps fallapart if people continue to

use them.

That’s just how life is. Cute

habits, like putting pictures

on a refrigerator door with

magnets, are fine when the

number of pictures is small

— but you produce a mess

when the number of pictures

becomes too large. Somehabits are meant for small

numbers, and they must be

abandoned or changed when

the numbers increase.

This new environment of

increased messages

demands new habits to deal

with them. Otherwise,

electronic messages end up

falling through the cracks,

languishing in inboxes for

email, voice mail, social

networks, etc., for months

and years at a time.

NEW SMARTPHONE

TECHNOLOGY

After the creation of email,

the invention of the

smartphone is probably the

most important innovation

to impact individual

productivity.

Smartphones free users

from their desks, laptops,

and offices — and they keep

people in touch with others

who want to reach them,

and vice versa. The miracle

is that this happens

seamlessly at all hours of

the day, every day of the

year, around the globe.

What smartphone users are

never told is the degree to

which their work habits are

likely to change for the

worse as a result of using

this device.

Unfortunately, in many

cases the gains made from

smartphones areoutweighed by the loss of

productivity that occurs at

the same time. The fact is,

most employees are still

using the self-taught habits

from the 1990s. The results

have been disastrous,

If you've eversent people

email andnever receiveda reply, thechances aregood that theyareoverwhelmed.



Newsletter Header

6

something the press is now

highlighting in a variety of

articles recently published

around the world.

For example, on June 6 and

7, 2010, The New York Times

published a trio of articles onthe subject, with the longest

entitled “Hooked on

Gadgets, and Paying a

Mental Price.” It describes

the negative impact on

family life that results from

using smartphones and

other devices.

Seven Pounds, a 2009 movie

starring Will Smith,highlighted the risk of

multitasking using a

smartphone at the wheel.

Many U.S. states require

hands-free devices to use

cell phones and

smartphones while driving.

The old four-step process for

email that I described above

simply doesn’t make sense

in the smartphone era.

Trying to follow the old

formula leads to constant

monitoring of email, an

increase in disruptions, and

email inboxes that fly further

out of control.

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has

joked about the wanderingattention of those Blackberry

users whose eyes start to

drift toward their

smartphones during a

conversation. (Click here to

access the Seinfeld clip.)

They seem unable to resist

the disruptive pull provided

by the device, a fact that

scientists link to a dopamine

rush that takes place in the

brain when new electronic

messages are received.

Outside of email, there’s

another unproductive habit

that smartphone use

promotes: the practice of

answering the phonewhenever we hear it (or feel

it) ringing.

Rudolph Giuliani, candidate

for the Republican

nomination for U.S. president

in 2008, gave the world a

perfect example when he

stopped to answer his

smartphone in the middle of

a speech he was giving to a

packed audience at the

National Rifle Association.

(Click here to access the

Giuliani clip.)

I remember doing some

work with a regional telecom

company back in the early

2000s, when cell phones

were becoming ubiquitous.

Company staff somehow

developed the unspokenpolicy of answering their cell

phones whenever they rang,

which dragged out meetings

for hours. Even a presenter

would stop in midsentence

to answer a cell phone, just

like Giuliani.

The fact is, radical new

technology requires brand

new habits and practices

that we consciously choose

and refine to ensure no loss

of productivity.

What’s happening instead is

that employees are once

again learning how to use

the features onsmartphones, without

rethinking their personal

habits and productivity. This

is why so many people (over

60% in the U.S.) use their

smartphones in the

bathroom.

It’s also the reason why an

executive team (often

starting with the managingdirector) can send 20 emails

between 3:00 am and 7:00

am.

Old habits don’t always work

well with new technology,

and it takes a certain

amount of awareness to

stem the tide of

unproductive behaviour.

It goes without explanation

that people who sit in my

time management class for

a day and check their

smartphones every 15

minutes have wasted their

time by attending the

course. The same goes for

people who sit in a meeting,

at their desks, or in aconversation over the phone

and allow their attention to

drift or to be dragged away

from their original purpose.

People who interrupt their

own speeches to answer

their cell phones are also

wasting the time of all who

are listening.

Sometimes, corporate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYDA7__znfY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eFOotpUjqk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eFOotpUjqk



Issue 1

7

policies help to ensure a

constant flow of random

interruptions.

Recently, I heard of a

company that just reversed

a long-standing policy of

banning voice mail. The ruleused to be that each

employee

should

answer

every call,

because the

call might be

from a

customer. If

that sounds

bizarre,

consider the

effect that a

vague open-

door policy

has on

managerial

productivity.

It’s not too

different

from policiesthat promote open floor

plans. These policies all say

the same thing to the

employee: “Make yourself

available for random,

constant interruptions.”

Smartphones encourage

random interruptions in

much the same way. This is

the reason why a fewemployees are wising up and

refusing to use them.

When every employee finally

has a smartphone, I expect

the number of disruptions to

increase as more people are

CC’ed on those problem-

solving email threads that

are sent in the middle of the

night.

THE RECESSION

As if these practices weren’t

bad enough, we happen to

be in the midst of the Big

Recession. This means that

executives and managersare generally anxious and

often in a rush to get quick

answers.

Some managers are going

further and accusing their

employees who don’t

respond quickly enough of

having poor time

management habits —

declaring those employees

to be in need of training.

These managers are making

an implicit threat: “If you

don’t drop whatever you’re

doing to respond to my

requests as fast as I make

them, then I’ll find someone

else who will.”

This growing fear of repercussions has meant

that employees are adopting

all of the unproductive

behaviours of their

managers just to keep their

jobs.

Some are simply quitting, as

is the case of a vicepresident I interviewed. She

refused to

continue living

the kind of

lifestyle that we

used to associate

only with

emergency

response teams

and casualty

wards. Being “on

call” all the time

led to burnout,

and she resigned

to “spend more

time with her

family.”

All over the world,

there are

employees whocan’t resist the urge to use

their smartphones while

driving, in spite of the

studies showing that drunk

drivers demonstrate better

response times. The

motivation here is not a love

for work — it’s the fear of

missing something

important that might be

critical to keeping their jobs.

Some bosses just don’t care.

They’re too anxious to take

in the big picture, and they

don’t want to miss being a

part of key decisions made

before 6:00 am.



Newsletter Header

8

Reversing the trend toward

greater “un”-productivity

driven by smartphone use

needs to start at the top of theorganisation.

As we say in the change

management business, “The

dead fish stinks the worst at

the head.”

In the smartphone era, the

habits that are destroying

productivity started, in mostcases, in the executive suite.

Unlike PCs, which entered

companies via IT

departments, smartphones

were typically first used by

executives.

Executives are the ones who

first demonstrated the

unproductive habits that arenow being passed down to all

levels of the company. In

many cases, it was a

demanding CEO who taught

the company how to engage

in the following habits: give

partial attention in meetings,

conversations, and phone

calls as the Blackberry takes

away your attention; interruptactivities to check and send

messages; take time away

from family and friends on

weekends, vacations, and

holidays; move to 24/7

contact (e.g., 3:00 am

messages); and demand

quick responses from

subordinates, regardless of

what they’re doing.

In some companies, a

promotion to management

carries an unspoken demand:You must use a smartphone,

and you must join in the

habits listed above to become

a full member of the team.

Because these are executive

behaviours, they often go

unquestioned.

Unfortunately, human

resources, the traditionaldefender of employee

productivity in most

companies, has been slow to

take up this particular

challenge. Many human

resource professionals have

not even recognised the

problem clearly, and the most

they might do is recommend

that an individual attend atime management class.

INDIVIDUAL TRAINING

Here at Framework, we’ve

been working for several

years on helping

professionals upgrade their

time management systems.

Our programmes focus on the

habits and practices that

operate under the surface of

all individual time

management systems. Using

this approach, it’s possible to

upgrade any current time

management system to

include new technology.

We start by recognising that

each person has an individual

time management system

that has worked to some

degree until now. With some

insight into how it’s working,

and where it’s failing, it’s not

too hard to determine which

habits need to change to

meet the demands of the next

decade.

Professionals who have the

ability to adapt their time

management systems to

different circumstances and

Making Change Happen

http://fwconsulting.com/newhabitsin-house



Issue 1

9

technologies are well

positioned to upgrade and

adjust them as needed.

It’s the very opposite of being

caught using new

technologies with old habits.

However, upgrading your own

system is often not enough.

The problem is much bigger

than any single employee can

solve.

In the time management

classes I conduct in

companies, it’s not too hard to

see these habits at work.

During a workshop in which

all attendees must contend

with their unproductive

Blackberry habits, it’s obvious

which habits are killing the

company’s productivity.

At the same time, the

company’s culture has been

shaped by these habits over

time, and forging a different

culture based on new habits

isn’t easy to do.

In most cases, it won’t happen

without a change in company

policies. Once again, changes

made by individuals simply

aren’t enough.

POLICY CHANGES

Within a company that’s rife

with unproductive habits, it’s

hard to enforce a widespread

change. For example, a

manager may decide to check

email on a set schedule, only

to have his boss insist oninstant responses to her

messages. Unfortunately, for

most people this means

checking all emails in a

continuous manner just to find

the boss’s emails. This is a

notorious habit that wastes a

great deal of time.

In such a company, it would

take a policy change to allow

the right behaviours to

override this habit. For

example, the new policy could

be to never communicate

emergencies via email, and

instead use face-to-face

contact, phone calls, or text

messages.

This kind of policy could drive

large-scale behaviour

changes — and keep

employees from making life

miserable for their colleagues.

Unfortunately, in reality it’s

quite difficult to convince

executives to give up their

own unproductive behaviours,

especially when they’ve used

them to get things done from

time to time. Many

CEOs/owners who like to

send 3:00 am emails and

expect immediate answers

are unlikely to want to stop.

What they need to understand

is that habits such as these

create havoc when the whole

company follows their lead

and every single person

expects the others to be just

as “responsive.” These

executives must come to see

for themselves that the results

of these habits are a massiveprice to pay when everyone

indulges in them.

Before the policies can

change, therefore, the

executive team must

collectively agree that a

change is necessary. They

can do this by demonstrating

the effect of unproductive

habits and also by showingthe data that predicts what

will happen when widespread

smartphone use becomes a

reality.

For example, the average

employee experiences seven

interruptions per hour. Data

from companies outside the

Caribbean that have beenusing smartphones for a

longer time show that

smartphone use only

increases the number of

interruptions.

The odd company may

overreact and try to ban

smartphones altogether, and

some have banished



Issue 1

10

Tips, Ads and Links

PODCAST: Remember, eachissue of FirstCuts is recordedas a podcast and can be foundat the following clickable link:www.fwconsulting.podomatic.com

RADIO: I recently began anew "career" as a local radiohost. I am the Monday-nighthost of BusinessuiteToday,which comes on Bess100FMfrom 5-7pm. It's alsobroadcast on the internet atwww.bessfm.com. I'd love it if you could check it out eitherlive here in Kingston or on the

internet.

FACEBOOK: I have placed afan page on Facebook thatcan be accessed here:www.fwconsulting.com/fbook.firstcuts. If you like FirstCuts,visit the link and click on theLike Button tolet me know.

Your feedback is extremelyvaluable to me.

PAST ISSUES: You can findall the prior issues of FirstCutsat:www.blog.fwconsulting.com/

firstcuts.

PROGRAMMES: To find outmore about our productivityprogrammes conducted withincorporations, visitwww.fwconsulting.com/newhabitsin-house. We offerboth live and online/elearningprogrammes that companiescombine in different ways to

meet their employees needs.

COMMENTS: Please leaveme any comments orquestions that you mighthave about this issue over atmy time management blog:www.2time-sys.com/2010/06/26/firstcuts34/

FirstCuts © Copyright 2010,

Framework Consulting,

except where indicated

otherwise. All rights reserved

worldwide. Reprint only with

permission from copyright

holder(s). All trademarks are

property of their respective

owners. All contents provided

as is. No express or implied

income claims made herein.

Your business success is

dependent on many factors,

including your own abilities.

Advertisers are solely

responsible for ad content.

To subscribe, send email to

[email protected] OR

visit

www.blog.fwconsulting.com/

firstcuts.

To contact us with questions

or feedback, send email to

[email protected]

Sign up today for our monthlyezine of critical links forCaribbean managers.

smartphone use in meetings.

One well-known company has

made a rule that smartphones

cannot be used in board

meetings. In essence, they’ve

surrendered to unproductive

habits altogether, and they’ve

decided that the little

productive benefit from having

smartphones in the

boardroom is outweighed by

the distraction they cause.

Consider what this means.

These board members have

admitted that they are

individually powerless in the

face of their addiction to poor

smartphone habits. They’ve

implemented a draconian rule

to prevent their unproductive

habits from disrupting their

important meetings.

Obviously, they saw

something that scared them

into drastic action.

You may well ask yourself,

“What is my company doing?”

You may also ask, “If the

board has realised that this is

a problem for its members,

what does it mean for the

average employee?”

These are important

questions.

FC

http://2time-sys.com/2010/06/26/firstcuts34

http://blog.fwconsulting.com/firstcuts

http://fwconsulting.com/newhabitsin-house

http://blog.fwconsulting.com/firstcuts

http://fwconsulting.com/fbook.firstcuts

http://fwconsulting.com/fbook.firstcuts

http://bessfm.com/

http://fwconsulting.com/morevidap1

firstcuts 34 - smart phone era productivity

Documents